Empress
by Shakith
Summary: AU. A ten year old Kalasin is forced into a marriage with Kaddar to avoid war with Carthak. Coming to the Imperial Palace, she must learn to make a life for herself in a place where she is not particularly wanted. HIATUS.
1. Prologue

_"We were told Ozorne wants Kaddar to marry Kalasin in the spring and bring her here to live. No marriage agreement means no treaty, in spite of the fact that he never mentioned a wedding when he and the king arranged these talks."_

_-162, _Emperor Mage

**Prologue**

The letters were sent. Alanna was not the only one who was furious, but she was the only one with so little self-control as to show it. It was said that Duke Gareth had forbidden her from attending the peace talks for three days afterward. And then for another three days, when the letters were returned, and the response, though reluctant, was affirmative. "No one," she told Numair, furious, sometime in between these two events, "wants this marriage. Even Ozorne doesn't want it. It was only a bluff, a… something intended to start a war. And I'd rather go to war a hundred times over than just… give in, and give him what he wants. What he's pretending to want."

Neither Numair nor Daine, who was also in the room at the time, said anything. Daine was at least as angry as Alanna, although she was able to hide it better. She remembered the Kalasin she'd met two years ago, a girl who had followed her around and insisted that she was going to be a knight and that Daine call her 'Kally'. Only ten, now. And there was no way she'd be able to become a knight in Carthak, where they'd laughed at Daine when she said she knew how to use a bow. And there was no way that the wife of Prince Kaddar, the future Empress of Carthak, could become a knight even if they had accepted the idea of females carrying swords. They needed the peace, she knew, and she wouldn't go so far as to say, the way the Lioness had, that she'd rather have war than a marriage. But it was an unfair thing, something that should not be happening. No marriage, no peace, the Emperor had said. Although he hadn't mentioned that until recently, after the peace talks had already been going on for quite some time.

Kalasin would arrive in the spring. Daine would be long gone by then, as would Alanna and Numair. No familiar faces to help her adjust to her new home. Which made Daine think again of Ozorne's offer, the offer that had never been officially made, the offer she had refused to consider when she'd first heard of it. Lands and a title and a home in the Imperial Palace of Carthak. No one else would be able to stay behind. She had a life back home, and friends, but she was not Alanna or Numair or Duke Gareth, not so important that they would be at such a loss if she was gone. They might miss her; that was all.

Later, she said to Numair, "I want to stay here."

"Here?" he said. "In Carthak?" When she nodded, he explained to her why that was a mistake, and why she absolutely must not do it. Then he asked, "Why?"

And she explained to him about Kalasin, and how she wasn't really needed in Tortall.

"You," he said, "are an idiot." There was more explaining.

"I could visit," said Daine. And Numair told her that he wouldn't stop her from visiting, but that it was probably a bad idea and that she should be very, very careful if she did so. He told her that she wouldn't be the only one visiting, either, or did she think the Queen would just abandon her daughter like that? Daine told him that Thayet wouldn't be able to visit very often, and he admitted that this was true. But still, he said, she should be careful. Carthak was dangerous, especially at this particular time, with this particular Emperor. And that was that.

Alanna was still furious, and wrote letters to the King and Queen and any nobles she knew who had any influence at all. Others, in Tortall and Carthak both, protested in their own way, or were simply angry, or sad, and did nothing. Most said that they felt sorry for Kalasin, yes, ten years old and spending the rest of her life in a foreign country and married to a man so much older, but wasn't it a small sacrifice to avoid war? Kaddar was one who felt sorry for the princess, and angry as well. He realized, and had realized before the decision was made, that he wouldn't have any say in the matter. Although he'd never really looked forward to his marriage, with a bride chosen by the Emperor, he had known it was inevitable. But the reasons for this choice, this bride, and the way it had been made… Both made him very angry with his uncle. He'd been angry with his uncle far too often, recently, more often than was really healthy. He decided he'd stop thinking about certain things for a while.

Ozorne sat through the peace talks and pretended to be satisfied and knew that he didn't really have an excuse for war, now. It left him frustrated and annoyed. He'd been almost sure the Tortallan queen wouldn't allow her daughter to marry, almost sure, and he'd had another plan, should the first fail. But that hadn't worked out, either. So here he was, without a real excuse for war and left with an heir he didn't particularly want. _Idiot_, he told himself. _Idiot._ The Tortallan delegation was leaving in less than a week.

Similar thoughts to those of the Queen of Tortall, and at almost the same time. _I've been an idiot… _"Why did we agree to it?" she asked her husband aloud. "Why did _I_ agree to it? No one wants this marriage."

"No one wants war, either," King Jonathan replied, "with the probable exception of Ozorne."

"Mithros," she muttered, and then something after that which was inaudible but sounded vaguely like an expletive. "No one wants this marriage. Is there no other way to avoid war?"

"No." He said it sadly. "Especially not now that we've agreed, now that the letters have been sent." Thayet cursed, this time loudly, and the King smiled a little and was glad that they were in the privacy of their bedroom. He wondered what the court would think, hearing such language from a Queen.

**Notes: **Constructive criticism, of any kind, is very welcome. (This hasn't been beta'd, and has only been read over by the author once.) It's also nice when reviews aren't written in chatspeak. That's all I have to say on that subject.


	2. Chapter 1

**Arrival**

_**Two Months Later **(September, 451 H.E.) _

"And it's gone, now?" Numair asked. "Why couldn't you have told me _earlier_?" He sighed. "What, exactly, did the badger say to you? Both times."

"He told me I should go home, first. Me and the entire delegation. This was when we were just arriving. And he said that the Great Gods… He said it was dangerous to be in Carthak, and it had something to do with them. And then he got strange, at the end, and breathed on me. And I told you already what came of that. It made… dead things… alive." She winced slightly. "And then the night we left, he came again. He said it was… no longer necessary, that things had changed, and he… just took it back, I suppose. There was a silver light, and then it went away. So it's gone now, thank the gods, and I don't have any idea what the whole thing was about. Nothing _did_ happen in Carthak, much, while we were there."

"What does he mean, that things have changed?" Numair asked, drumming his fingers on the table impatiently. But Daine didn't have an answer for him.

_**March, 452 H.E.**_

It seemed that she could feel every small wave that made contact with the ship, and she wasn't sure at all how she'd managed to get to sleep. But she _was _asleep, although she was not sure how she knew, and the waves still pounded and rocked, almost rhythmically but not quite. And then she remembered that the voyage was over, now, and opened her eyes and gazed at the ceiling and wished that it wasn't.

In the book, the girl had cried when she had left her parents. The girl had been twelve, two years older then Kally (soon to be only one), but she hadn't, after all, been a royal princess. Kally hadn't cried for want of her parents. She had not even, not yet, cried for want of Roald, who spent more time with her than _they _did. Not that she blamed them for it, but it was hard for her to miss them. Roald, on the other hand… She wondered, and decided that it hadn't really sunk in yet, that she was alone, and far from home. In the book, the girl had cried herself to sleep. In the book, the girl had been homesick. In the book… A wave of guilt swept over Kalasin, almost as painful as the homesickness she didn't quite feel. She clung suddenly to the thin blanket as if afraid that she would fall of the bed.

"Does her Highness wish to sleep longer?" a quiet voiced asked. "This unworthy one will leave and clean her Highness' rooms later, if her Highness wishes." The woman was old--not so old, really, not much older than her parents—and dressed as a slave. Kally wasn't sure when she'd come into the room, but she must have been very quiet, to be unnoticed for so long. Kally noted that several of the things she'd gotten out last night were now put neatly away, that curtains on the window had been pulled back. She sat up in bed, shaking her head to the slave woman's question.

"Where am I s'posed to go now?" she asked through a yawn, wondering what time it was. She missed the hourly bells of the palace, as much as they were hardly meant to determine the time of the royal princess' awakening. She'd had months to prepare

"This unworthy one does not know, Nobility," the slave said, bowing very low. "This unworthy one is very sorry."

Kalasin blinked at her and said, "Oh." And lay down again and pretended to go to sleep, because she wasn't sure what to do and she felt awkward moving about her room while the slave woman was there. And hoped that the rest of her life would not be like this.

_**Early April, 452 H.E.**_

Kaddar blinked the sweat from his eyes and watched his friends argue. He couldn't, truthfully, remember what the argument was about at this point, but that was just as well, since he wasn't participating. He was thinking of other things Kalasin. Lindhall had quite correctly declared that he was using every excuse possible to avoid her. He felt bad enough about the marriage in the first place, and now there was the added guilt of refusing to talk with her. But… she was _ten_, by all the gods. Ten years old, and supposed to be his wife some time soon. What did he have to talk about with a ten-year-old? He'd never been very good with children… Gods, he'd barely ever even been _around_ children. But he felt terrible about avoiding her.

There was a brief wind, pleasant and cooling, but it smelled of dust. The drought was getting worse. And there was plague in the city: the sweating sickness, although it had not reached the palace. Had not _yet_ reached the palace. More thoughts that, if he put them together, bordered on treason. But as conditions grew worse, so did rumors, and they were everywhere now: in the palace, among nobility and servants alike, in the city, possibly even among the _slaves_… All very, very quiet of course, but they were good at that, in this place, under this Emperor. _The gods are angry with Carthak, with the Emperor. The gods demand…_ Sometimes it was simply the Emperor's resignation, others it was his execution. Some said they called for Kaddar on the throne, others that a full-scale revolution was necessary. All very quietly. If the Emperor knew, they did not give him an excuse to blame _them…_

He wondered: which was more worrisome, the situation with the Emperor or the situation with the Tortallan princess?

_**April, 452 H.E.**_

Kaddar had asked, "Can you make sure that she's happy? Can you make sure that she's feeling at _home_, at least?" She didn't want to, but Kaddar was the heir apparent, and she was simply…Varice. Not much more than a servant, really, for all the titles and fine clothes and parties. The Tortallan princess reminded her of Arram-who-was-Numair. _Anything_ Tortallan reminded her of Arram, which was silly… he wasn't even _from _Tortall after all, he was Tyran, and also… Also it wasn't good, to be so preoccupied with a single person. A person who, after all, did not have the Emperor's favor, and a person she was not likely to ever see again, so what was the point of even thinking about him at all? Except that she couldn't help it, and now she was supposed to make the Tortallan princess feel 'at home,' and she would be reminded of him constantly.

"What would you like to wear today, Kalasin?" she asked, pulling herself away from her complaints with one last thought about how caring for a child had hardly anything to do with housekeeping and less to do with her Gift.

The girl said, "Kally. I don't want to be called Kalasin." And then, apparently realizing that she had been asked a question, she pointed to a heavy violet gown.

"It's too warm, for a thing like that, really."

"It isn't too warm. I wore it before I left, and I wasn't warm at all."

"The weather is warmer in Carthak, dear… Please choose something else…" Varice tried to keep her voice pleasant. Let her broil, if she wanted to. She could… Sighing, she tried to regain control of her temper. She didn't mind children, normally, for all their childish ways, but today… She was not in a mood, today, to be calm and gentle. She didn't _want_ to be calm and gentle. She wanted, rather, to hit something.

"I don't care. I won't be too warm. I'm _never_ too warm."

Varice swallowed. _Gods give me strength. _"Perhaps… perhaps you can wear it in the evening. There's going to a wonderful party this evening, and you wouldn't want to soil that lovely dress before you make your appearance, would you?" And it was cooler in the evening, and Kalasin would look acceptable, then, where she wouldn't in the middle of the day, wearing something as heavy as that.

"Fine. I'll wear it in the evening, then."

Varice attempted to hold back a sigh of relief. She succeeded partly, and turned it into a yawn. "What would you like to wear now, then?"

Kalasin help up something silky and trailing and green. "But… it doesn't match… Your eyes dear, really…" Varice stopped, realizing that by doing so she made life easier for the girl as well as for herself. It wouldn't look _truly _terrible, after all.

**Notes: **That was fun to write, although I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with it as a chapter. To the two people who offered to beta for me—thank you, first of all, and the reason I'm posting this now without contacting either of you is because it's been so long I really have no idea if you're still reading. Also, I'm slightly scared of e-mail.

There will be individual responses to reviewers sometime… later, but for now, thank you all very much. Again, constructive criticism is welcome.


End file.
